Ultimate Backyard Ballistics Guide Book 240pp

Let's Go Ballistic...

If you're devoted to explosions, and who isn't, you'll love the new expanded 2nd edition of William Gurstelle's Backyard Ballistics, now 25% longer, with 25% more ka-boomery. Still the go-to reference work for building rockets, cannons (carbide and potato), flingers, fire kites, electromagnetic pipe guns, tennis ball mortars, cleaner-bag balloons, ballistic pendula and petards. You simply can't have more fun with common household materials. The soft-cover, 210pp compendium includes detailed and illustrated instructions, parts lists and sensible ways not to be hoist on your own petard. Be careful out there.

Jarvis Says: Experts  Agree!

“A great primer for the would-be engineer, and a wonderful chance for bonding among like-minded parents and children . . . Great fun!”  —Courier-Journal

"How is it possible not to love a book with chapter titles like 'Back Porch Rocketry' and 'Greek Fire and the Catapult?' I devoured this prodigious account of all things explosive."  —Homer Hickam, author of Rocket Boys

"Would-be rocketeers, take note: Engineer William Gurstelle has written a book for you."  —Chicago Tribune

"If you want to make a potato soufflé, pick up a book by Julia Child. If you want to decorate your holiday cards with hand-cut potato stamps, look to a Martha Stewart manual. If, however, you'd like to launch a potato in a blazing fireball of combusting hairspray from a PVC pipe, your best source is Backyard Ballistics, by William Gurstelle."  —Time Out New York